Developer: Downtown United Methodist site has hotel potential

The redevelopment of downtown's United Methodist Publishing House's site or adjacent properties could include a hotel, according to developer Mark Enderle, a partner in Terra Verde Group LLC, which hopes to redevelop the property.

Terra Verde Group LLC has a letter of intent to buy the 7.5-acre United Methodist Publishing site at the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue South and Demonbreun Street. A hotel project would be the latest in a string of hotel developments announced in Nashville since construction began on the Music City Center.

An undisclosed developer has reportedly been eying the area for a potential Westin Hotel. Enderle declined comment on the possibility of a Westin, saying Terra Verde would not serve as the developer of a hotel, should the project include one. Enderle said there is potential for a hotel on the site, on adjacent properties or on a combination of the properties.

"Conceptually, it's a combination residential, retail mixed-use, potentially with a hotel," Enderle said. "All of that stuff is a function of the economics."

He declined to go into detail about how much capital he plans to invest in the site or on specifics of the plan's residential component, but said apartments are likely and he envisions both retail and restaurant space.

"Today the hot products are apartments," he said, adding the project would be built out over the next seven to eight years. "Over that timeframe we'll probably have apartments; we may have condos. I think the market will tell us what the right answer is for that."

The United Methodist Publishing building will likely remain on the site for at least a year, giving time for the company to relocate, but Enderle said he didn’t foresee the building being part of long-term plans for the project.

"We are flexible with them on how long they'd like to stay," he said.

Terra Verde's experience has largely been in master-planned communities and second-home communities, Enderle said. The company developed The Grove, a residential community in Williamson County, and its urban development experience includes working on sales and marketing for the residences at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas.

"This is really a lifestyle community, much like we've done out at The Grove and over the years at second-home communities," Enderle said. "It's really a function of creating a lifestyle in a community. That creates value in the underlying real estate."

"If we could have gone and looked for anything in Nashville, there is nothing that compares, in my opinion, to the property," Enderle said. "That's the thing that gives me the most confidence we'll have a way to make this work."